Age Old Problems

Hello, businesses. Are your customers aging? Oh noes! Your clientele will die off! What's a business to do?

Sometimes nothing. We all grow older, there will always be new seniors. If you redefine your senior-savvy business to appeal to a young crowd, you'll lose your current customers. Then you're in competition with younger, hipper entrepreneurs. They'll out-hip you, and good luck resuscitating that cash cow you slaughtered. (Just ask Penneys. I still haven't gone back.)

That's not to say you shouldn't keep up. Just keep up more slowly. Keep making reading glasses, just make the frames more modern. Keep the Early Bird Special, just call it the Rush Hour Special... and make it with chicken instead of beef. If your store's decor appeals to 70-year-olds, redecorate to appeal to 50-year-olds.

Everybody wants a piece of the youth market. Back in the day, that might have been wise. Now? Don't be too sure. Young people are broke. By the time they make their student loan payment and update their phones, do you really think they can afford to spend big money at your upscale bar?

As a new senior, I am concerned. Businesses that used to cater to people like me no longer do. Some places went away completely, others made their brand unappealing to me in their quest for the fountain of youth. The place I feel it the most is the tech industry.

Just as I'm staying home more, mobility has become the holy grail. I don't mind that people 'on the go' are finally getting some love. It's just that everything stopped happening for stay-at-home machines. No improvements, and extra steps everyplace to get past OS features that home machines share with mobile machines.

Windows 8, made to support the mobile crowd, made no sense on a desktop. I sat at my desk looking at a jumbo monitor while I clicked frantically on a suddenly-useless mouse. That, at least, has been resolved. Windows 8.1 arrived. Good thing. They'd hate it if I hobbled up to Redmond brandishing my cane and mouse-clicking protests in morse code.

So businesses everywhere, especially tech... please don't forget the new seniors. You'll be one sooner than you think. Make sure your online experience will still be ergonomic, visible, and easy to use. You'll thank yourself when you're older and wiser.